Player-piano mechanism



S. R. HARCOURT.

PLAYER vRMN() MECHANISM. APPLICATION FILED Aus.25, |915.v

wv w S. R. HARCOURT.

PLAYER mno MEcHANlsM.

APPLICATION FILED AUG-25. I9I5.

1,316,573. Patentedsgpt. 23, 19.19.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2. I

I LN

STILL-WELL R. HARCOURT, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

PLAYER-PIANO MECHANISM To all whom it may concern.'

Be itfkn'own that I, `STILLWELL R. HAR- CoURi, a citizen of the UnitedStates, re siding at Chicago7 in the county of Cook and State ofIllinois,-have invented a certain new and usefull Improvement in Player-Piano Mechanism, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, andexact description, "1

reference being hady to the accompanying drawings', forming a part ofthis Vspeciiication. f

n player-pianos, and is concerned-particularly with such instrumentsthat are operated pneumati'cally,` atleast so far asthe progression ofthe usual music-sheet is concerned.

roll a' spool carrying a sheet of music is associated. A pneumatic motoris provided to operate either the spool or theroll, in' rewinding orplaying, respectively,and my invention is concerned'with the control fthis pneumatic motor. More specifically, my inventioii is concerned withthe control ofthe motor during the playing operation,-that is, while themotor-power is applied to the takeup roll.

provided in devices of this kind for the'purwhich suction is to beapplied, the reservoir continual.

" Voir with the motor, and inlthe prior art it a preliminaryadjustment.` y

My invention is concerned with phrasing the music. lThat is, it isconcerned withA means for temporarily retarding or accelerating a phrasein the music being played, entirely independently of the governorcontrol, so that it is possible to quicken the pace n of the" music fora moment, or to retard it,

` in `order to get the most 'artisticeffeca without interfering with therate at which the piece of music as a whole isset to be played.

My invention is ofsuch a nature that it may readilybe applied to anyplayer piano,

and, physically, involves the employment of specification LettersPatent. ,i-Pafentd Sept, 23, Application iledy August 25,v 1315. `SerialNo. 47,239.

a valve-boX which provides for-closing olf the flow cfrom the motor andalso for temporarily?*shunting the governor which has beenl referred to.Y

'i *Other featuresL offmy invention will bey"come clear as thisdescription proceeds.

" My'linvention is illustrated in -the accompanying drawings, in whichvFigure 'l' is a front elevational view of a Y player; piano-embodyingthe features of my l inventiomfparts of the casing being removed *Myinvention relatesv to' piano players, or

in yorder to reveal-the interior construction Fig. -2`is-a sectionalview=-on an enlarged scale,'-showing the valve-boXa-nd controlling-=mechani`sm of my3 invention; f

4AFig. 3 is a sectionalview taken on th y MVpla'ne of the line 3 3 ofFig. 2 and looking In devices of this kind, a so-called "take-up rollisprovided, and withthat in the direction indicated by the arrows; 1Figi 4 `is ase'ctional view taken on the plane of the line 4 4 of 'Fig 2and looking inlthedirection indicated by the arrows;

- iF ig. -5 is a plan-view of one of the controlling buttons', whichwill be referred to; "and Fig?. 6 is--an enlarged vertical sectionalview take-Ir ontheline 6 6 of Fig. l.V

flReerring;irst,`toFig. l, it will be seen thatthere isillustratedapiano casing 6,

the key-board being shown at 7. Properly l, fniounted'in the'lower partof the casing It is well known that a pumper-bell'ows is isasupporting-board 8, which carries the Ypumper-bellows 9V and 10,operated by the poseof exhausting thel air, by successive impulses,from` a so-called reservoir, which 'l in `turn is connected with thedevices' to `and"l2, respectively. The Ipassageway 13 'connects thebellows 9 and the reservoir ll,

and a-'pas'sageway 14- connects the bellowslO and theV reservoir l2.Each of the.l

reservoirs is provided with a spring 15 ytd-keep itnormally distended,and it will now be4 understood that the suction `impulses from'therespective bellows causev a steady suction-tof bemaintained by thereservoirs."

Thefactiom withth'e details oi'iV which I am not concerned, `isillustrated' broadly at 16,*and it will be seen that-the reservoir l1action by meansTr of the -air line 17.

v A"go vernor 1S is provided adjacent the reservoirllQ, and a passageway19'connects the interiorof the governor with the resisfflconn'ected withthe wind-chest `of the ervoir. "Theron's'truction of this governor c iswell known in the'art, and it is sufficient' tosaythatfupon its interiorthe movable board ofthe governor, which is constructed Alike abellows,is provided with a valve 20,

suction the greater will be the tendency to close the port, thuscompensating, in a complementary way, for increased suction in thereservoir 12. It will thus be seen that, with the inlet to the governorof a determined size, the suction controlled by the governor will remainsubstantially constant.

A spring 22 tends to keep the governor distended.

In the upper part of the piano casing a rail 23 is mounted, and aroller-box 24 is set upon this rail, this roller-box having mountedtherein the music-roll 25, the musicspool 26 and the tracker 27, set insuch position therebetween that the paper passing from the spool to theroll may slide over the tracker. A pneumatic motor 28 is also mountedupon the rail 23, and, by means of transmission-mechanism 29, the powerof the shaft 30 of the motor is conveyed to either the spool 26 or theroll 25.

Since this invention is not concerned with the rewinding of themusic-sheet, I shall assume, for the purposes of this description, thatthe transmission-mechanism is insuch condition that the power of themotor is applied to the roll 25. That is the playing condition.

A suction-tube 31 leads from the motor 28 and goes to a valve-boX,32,mounted upon the rail 23. For the purpose of clearness, I have omittedthe front wall of the valvebox so as to show the interior construction,and I shall describe it more fully presently by reference to the otherfigures. I may say now that the valve-box has three compartments, 33, 34and 35. The compartment 33 is connected with the governor 18 by means ofan air line 36, in which a valve 37 is interposed. As shown in Fig. Gthe valve 37 is capable of various degrees of opening or closing and isadapted to remain in any set position, being manually controlled bymeans of a forwardly extending valve stem 50. By means of a direct airline 38, the compartment 35 is connected directly with the reservoir 12.By directly I means to convey the idea that the air line 38 is a path oflower resistance than the air line 36, which includes the governor. Thetube 31, which has already been referred to, is connected with thecompartment 34. It now will facilitate this description to refer also toFigs. 2 to 5. It will be seen that the compartments 33 and 35 may beconnected by means of an opening 39, which, however, is normally closedby a valve 40. The compartments 33 and 34 are normally connected bymeans of an opening 41, which may, however, be closed by a valve 42.These valves, as clearly shown in the drawings, slide in guideways 43,43, mounted upon the partition 44. The openings 39 and 41, as clearlyshown in Fig. 3,

are preferably triangular, so that the opening of one and the closing ofthe other may be gradual. Each of the valves is provided with adownwardly-extending stem 45, which passes out through an opening in thebase of the valve-box, and at its lower end is connected with a swinginglever 46, pivoted at 47 in the back of the key-slip. The other end ofeach of the levers is provided with an actuating-button, which isexposed through the key-slip. The button 42', which operates the valve42, may have any suitable mounting, but the button 40, which controlsthe movement of the valve 40, has a special mounting, illustrated inFigs. 2 and 5. The button 40a is pivotally mounted upon its lever 46, at48, and the opening 49 in the key-slip, through which the buttonextends, is of such size as to permit a slight lateral. play of thebutton. The upper end of a spring 51 may be secured at 52 to theopposite end of the lever 4G, whereby the lever 46 and button 40a arenormally held in the raised position as shown in Fig. 2. The buttonitself is provided with a notch 50, which is to coperate with a catch51, secured to the top of the key-slip and so disposed that when thebutton 401 is depressed and moved slightly to the right the notch. will.engage with the catch to hold the button 402L in its lowermost positionagainst the tension of the spring 51 and to lock it in that position, sothat the valve 40 may be kept open without further attention, ifdesired.

The operation of my device will now be clear. A certain tempo beingascribed to a piece of music to be played, the valve 37 is primarilyadjusted to correspond to the required rate. This rate, as before eX-plained, is maintained by the operation of the governor 18, since, undernormal conditions, the suction is applied to the motor exclusivelythrough the intervention of the governor, the valve 40 being completelyclosed, and the valve 42 being entirely open. If it is desired totemporarily retard the tempo, the button 42L is correspondinglydepressed and the valve 42 more or less closes the opening 41,completely closing it to stop the motor, if desired. However,immediately upon the release of the button 42a, the tempo immediatelyreturnsto the rate as determined by the valve 37.

I hen, on the other hand, it is desired to accelerate momentarily, thebutton 40aL is depressed and the valve 40 is opened, thus temporarilytransmitting the ungoverned suction of the reservoir to the motor. Here,again, immediately upon the release of the button, the spring 51 closingthe valve 40, causes the motor to return to its preliminarily-determinedspeed. If, as before described, the button 40 is depressed and thenmoved slightly to its right, the valve 40 may be locked in its openposition, so that it will remain open without further attention on thepart of the operator. This throws the governor entirely out of use untilthe button .is again released, and during such period it will be seenthat the operator may govern the tempo by his own pumping, as isfrequently the case when the operator may, at the same time, be playingsome other instrument.

I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Iatent of the UnitedStates:

l. In a player-piano, an action, note-sheet mechanism for said action, apneumatic motor for operating said note-sheet mechanism, a suctionreservoir, an air line connecting the motor with the reservoir, a valvechest interposed in said air line, the air line between the valve chestand the reservoir'being divided into two independent branches, one ofsaid branches having free and open connection with the reservoir, and agovernor interposed in the other branch, and a valve in the valve chest,independently controlling the connection thereof with the motor.

2. In piano player mechanism, an action having a wind chest, note-sheetmechanism for said action, a pneumatic motor for operating saidnote-sheet mechanism, a suction reservoir, an air line connecting saidmotor and said reservoir, a governor in said air line, a second air lineconnecting said motor directly with said reservoir, a manually operatedvalve in said second air line, a manually operative valve for cuttingoil3 both said air lines from the motor, and means for applying suctionto said wind chest whether vsaid valve is open or closed.

3, In piano player mechanism, an action having a wind chest, note-sheetmechanism for said action, a pneumatic motor for operating saidnote-sheet mechanism, a suction reservoir, an air line connecting saidmotor and said reservoir, a governor' in said air line, a second airline connecting said motor directly with said reservoir, a normallyclosed manually operated valve in said second air line, a normally openmanually operative valve for manually cutting off both said air linesfrom said motor, and means for applying suction to said wind chestwhether said valve is open or closed.

4L. In piano player mechanism, an action having a wind chest, note-sheetmechanism for said action, a pneumatic motor for operating saidnote-sheet mechanism, a suction reservoir, an air line extending betweensaid motor and said suction reservoir, a portion of said air line beingdividedl` into two branches, a governor' in one branch, a valve in theother branch, and a valve in an undivided portion of said air line.

5. An independently removable valve boX for attachment to a pneumaticmotor in a player-piano, provided with inlet and two independent outletsconnected to the wind chest of the player, one of said outlets being adirect connection, and the other having a governor interposed therein, avalve controlling the inlet, and a valve for shutting off the directconnected outlet from the governed outlet and from the inlet.

6. An independently removable valve boX for attachment to a pneumaticmotor in a player-piano, comprising three compartments, an inlet for oneof the compartments and an independent outlet for each ofthe others, oneof said outlets connected directly to the suction chamber of the player,and the other connected through a governor to said suction chamber, avalve controlling a piassage between the inlet compartment and theoutlet compartment connected with the governor, and a separate passagebetween said outlet compartment and a valve controlling said separatepassage.

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name this 18th day ofAugust, A. D.

STILLWELL R. HARCOURT.

-opies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

